1830.J 



Domestic and Foreign. 



227 



European travelling had given way to the most 

 unhoped-for kindness and cordiality unhoped- 

 for, because we arrived from a Christian coun- 

 try ; and on the very day of our landing; in the 

 Turkish capital, there camera fatal echo from 

 Navarino, spreading terror through all the west, 

 and setting every one on calculations, as to the 

 chances of escape which his friend might have, 

 before the rage of an infuriated mob. All this 

 while, we were living quietly at Constantinople, 

 ov, from a want of confidence in the Allies, were 

 alarmed only lest they, by new injuries, might 

 exasperate the people to madness. The spirit of 

 the treaty of alliance is fanaticism its provisions 

 violate the law of nations and, but for the dig- 

 nified moderation of those against whom it is 

 framed, it might have led to deplorable events. 

 Of this measure, posterity can have but one 

 opinion. The false lustre of the Greek name must 

 die away in its own ashes the film of religious 

 blindness will, in the end, be removed and the 

 philosophical historian will only have before him 

 the long-decided question of right, as pronounced 

 against the interference with Naples, and the 

 occupation of Spain. 



Among the more remarkable scenes de- 

 scribed are the caves or grottos of Adelberg, 

 though the author's attention was not called 

 to the non-descript animal which gave rise 

 to Sir Humphry Davy's fantastical specula- 

 tions a session of the Hungarian diet at 

 Presburg the Caverns of Inkerman in the 

 Crimea the Russian military colonies, as 

 they are called, in the same Crimea and 

 the cotton manufactory at Siout, in Egypt. 

 A biography of the Pacha of Egypt is given 

 at some length, on the mistaken supposition 

 that the subject was new. While at Odessa, 

 Mr. W. collected the reports in that neigh- 

 bourhood relative to the death of Alexander, 

 which is attributed to a sense of mortifica- 

 tion on hearing of the extensive conspiracy 

 at a moment when he thought himself idol- 

 ized. The editor has printed the report of 

 the commission appointed to inquire into 

 the details of that conspiracy. It is a very 

 interesting document ; but how far it is to 

 be trusted, is another matter. 



The Life of Alexander Alexander, writ- 

 ten by himself, and edited by John Howell. 

 2 vols. 12mo. Mr. Howell is as distin- 

 guished for his activity as for his benevo- 

 lence ; he is the common patron and bio- 

 grapher, in Edinburgh, of shipwrecked 

 sailors and broken-down soldiers. Within 

 a very few years, it will be recollected, he 

 has published the " Journal of a Soldier of 

 the 71st Regiment," and the " Life of 

 John Nicol, a Sailor." He has now a new 

 protdge to introduce, and in the preface has 

 thought it becoming to account for the 

 singular fact of a humble individual, as he 

 describes himself, venturing to appear as a 

 biographer. Compassion, it appears, prompt- 

 ed his first effort. The soldier, whose jour- 

 nal he published, was one whom he had 

 known as a playfellow when a boy, and 

 whom he discovered in a state of utter des- 

 titution, half-starved, covered with rags, 



and the " soles of his shoes fastened by a 

 cord as they had been on his retreat from 

 Corunna." Unable himself to furnish any 

 adequate assistance, he applied to an old 

 lady, whose hand he had found, on many 

 such occasions, ever ready and open ; and, 

 on telling his tale, she put her purse into 

 his hand, with, (( John, take what you 

 think he requires." This lady was the mo- 

 ther of Sir Walter Scott ; and Mr. Howell 

 records it as the proudest boast of his life, 

 that he had her confidence, and the honour 

 to be one of her almoners. To help the 

 poor fellow still farther, he drew up the nar- 

 rative from his mouth ; but before it was 

 published, the subject had left the country, 

 and his kind-hearfed benefactor has never 

 heard of him since. The same generous 

 sympathy guided his next attempt. John 

 Nicol was found by him in the same deso- 

 late and miserable state ; the good lady, 

 who had so often listened to his representa- 

 tions, was then no more ; but the success of 

 his first literary effort naturally under similar 

 circumstances suggested a second. " I did 

 my best for him," says Howell ; and the ef- 

 fect of his exertions was the realization of a 

 sum sufficient to render his few remaining 

 years comfortable, and to leave a surplus of 

 30, which Mr. Blackwood paid over to 

 his relations. 



Alexander Alexander, the hero of the 

 present publication, had, as a last resource, 

 written his own narrative at a formidable 

 length, and presented it to the publisher, 

 Blackwood. Publication,in its unpruned state, 

 Mr. B.'s professional tact told him at once 

 was impracticable ; but desirous of serving a 

 fellow-countryman, and one who had met 

 with nothing but disappointments through 

 a long career, he bethought himself of Mr. 

 Howell ; but unluckily Mr. Howell had just 

 then got Selkirk and his reputation upon 

 his hands, and could only give a faint hope 

 of some distant assistance. Mr. Blackwood, 

 however, kept him to this, a sort of half 

 promise, and the last eleven months the 

 mornings only, for the rest of the days were 

 occupied with the avocations of business 

 have been engaged in reducing above four 

 thousand folio pages to two moderate and 

 portable volumes. 



Alexander's tale is one of some interest, 

 and calculated to read an useful lesson. He 

 was the illegitimate son of a man of property 

 ashamed to acknowledge, and yet indis- 

 posed to abandon him. He placed the boy, 

 en a competent allowance for board, with 

 country people, whose prejudices against a 

 * get' of this kind were not to be overcome, 

 and who treated- him as something scarcely 

 entitled to the common regards of humanity. 

 At school we doubt if this could have oc- 

 curred in the south it was the same, and 

 he reached the age of seventeen with scarcely 

 any thing but the common acquirements of 

 reading and writing. The lad was sacrificed 

 to the desire of concealment, and yet inef- 

 fectively, for every body, it seems, knew 



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